Longlisted Poem: “Ode to Joe Ushie”
VITALIS CHINEMEREM ILOANWUSI is a Nigerian poet, writer, and scholar in English and Literary Studies. He currently serves as a Graduate Assistant at the Department of English and Literary Studies, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, where he also graduated with First Class Honours. He is the author of Painful Shadows (2022) and Unmerited Order (Tears of a Nation) (2024). He was Best Poet of the Year for the 2024 Big Odyssey Poetry Competition.